Have any of you made a passage on board a steamer between London and
Leith? If you have, you will have seen no small number of brigs and
brigantines, with sails of all tints, from doubtful white to decided
black some deeply laden, making their way to the southward, others with
their sides high out of the water, heeling over to the slightest breeze,
steering north.

On board one of those delectable craft, a brig called the Naiad , I
found myself when about fourteen summers had passed over my head. She
must have been named after a negress naiad, for black was the prevailing
colour on board, from the dark, dingy forecastle to the captain's state
cabin, which was but a degree less dirty than the portion of the vessel
in which I was destined to live. The bulwarks, companion hatch, and
other parts had, to be sure, once upon a time been painted green, but
the dust from the coal, which formed her usual cargo, had reduced every
portion to one sombre hue, which even the salt seas not unfrequently
breaking over her deck had failed to wash clean.

Captain Grimes, her commander, notwithstanding this, was proud of the
old craft; and he especially delighted to tell how she had once carried
a pennant when conveying troops to Corunna, or some other port in Spain.

I pitied the poor fellows confined to the narrow limits of her dark
hold, redolent of bilge water and other foul odours. We, however, had
not to complain on that score, for the fresh water which came in through
her old sides by many a leak, and had to be pumped out every watch, kept
her hold sweet.

How I came to be on board the Naiad I'll tell you

I had made up my mind to go to sea why, it's hard to say, except that I
thought I should like to knock about the world and see strange
countries. I was happy enough at home, though I did not always make
others happy. Nothing came amiss to me; I was always either laughing or
singing, and do not recollect having an hour's illness in my life. Now
and then, by the elders of the family, and by Aunt Martha especially, I
was voted a nuisance; and it was with no small satisfaction, at the end
of the holidays, that they packed me off again to school. I was fond of
my brothers and sisters, and they were fond of me, though I showed my
affection for them in a somewhat rough fashion. I thought my sisters
somewhat demure, and I was always teasing them and playing them tricks.
Somehow or other I got the name among them and my brothers of "Happy
Jack," and certainly I was the merriest of the family. If I happened,
which was not unfrequently the case, to get into a scrape, I generally
managed to scramble out of it with flying colours; and if I did not, I
laughed at the punishment to which I was doomed. I was a
broad shouldered, strongly built boy, and could beat my elder brothers
at running, leaping, or any other athletic exercise, while, without
boasting, I was not behind any of them in the school room. My father
was somewhat proud of me, and had set his mind on my becoming a member
of one of the learned professions, and rising to the top of the tree.
Why should I not? I had a great uncle a judge, and another relative a
bishop, and there had been admirals and generals by the score among our
ancestors. My father was a leading solicitor in a large town, and
having somewhat ambitious aspirations for his children, his intention
was to send all his sons to the university, in the hopes that they would
make a good figure in life. He was therefore the more vexed when I
declared that my firm determination was to go to sea. "Very well,
Jack," he said, "if such is your resolve, go you shall; but as I have no
interest in the navy, you must take your chance in the merchant
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